HBM Contributers

March 1, 2012

Ripples, Or Making a Book Trailer

Today we're
releasing our all-new (and very first) book trailer. As with pretty much all things Here Be Monsters, it was
created by using (read: exploiting) our talented friends. In this case, it's the work of Parissa Mohit, a friend and incredible filmmaker and animator. We
are honoured to have her contribute to our project.

Which
brings me to something that struck me recently while thinking about Here Be
Monsters (which, obviously, I do a lot of, oh narcissistic me). I realized how creative projects tend
to generate more creativity. A
sort of ripple effect of creation, if you will, that spreads and builds and
swells and motivates other artists of all kind to go places they might not have
ventured had not this first project happened.

What made
me think of that was actually making this book trailer. I started by writing a very basic
script of a few sentences, with a few indications of some beats and a few
things my completely non-visual brain thought would be cool. Then I showed it to Parissa (first
ripple), and told her to use it or not, as she probably knew much better than I
did what would work and what would be an unadulterated catastrophe. She looked at it, and immediately
suggested we use as a background the amazing cover illustration Annabelle made
for us, and base the animation on that (second ripple).

Then I
suggested I could make the music with my band, Les Ordures Ménagères, (third
ripple, albeit self-directed). As
Parissa went away to work on the film, I went to my friend and band drummer
Olivier Dufault. I told him about
the project, and we settled in our practice space to come up with something
together. We made a first song,
mostly from a keyboard line I produced.
It was alright, but kind of boring. So I told Olivier: "You know that weird thing you do
involving contact mikes on your drum kit, effect pedals, amps, pre-amps and a
mixer, and that I really don't understand but sounds really cool? Well we should use that". So he played something really cool
(fourth ripple), I added some keyboard to it, and we tried to record it.

The
recording didn't sound very good, but the piece was exactly what I wanted. So we asked third Ordure Ménagères band
member Jérome Simard, who knows his way around all kinds of arcane recording
devices, to rip himself away from his newborn baby, and come give us a
hand. Which he did (fifth ripple),
recording something of incredible quality in a space that was not soundproofed
(we could hear some Tom Waits and some Ozzy Osbourne being partially massacred
next door), using only two mikes and a very basic console, on a laptop that is
so old that creationists would probably believe it has never existed.

So, what
I'm saying is, we're really lucky to be surrounded by such talented people, and
that they're willing to work with us with such enthusiasm. But I also believe that enthusiasm
begets enthusiasm, and that once you start a creative project, it attracts
creativity from all around.